About Lyn Diefenbach

Lyn Diefenbach is an internationally acclaimed artist from Australia, celebrated for her luminous floral, portrait, and landscape paintings in both pastel and oil. With a career spanning over three decades, Lyn has earned recognition worldwide for her ability to capture the essence of her subjects with striking realism, sensitivity, and emotional depth. A sought-after instructor, she brings a wealth of knowledge, warmth, and encouragement to her teaching—guiding students to expand their skills, sharpen their vision, and express their own creative voice.

In this 7-day Sicily workshop, Lyn will lead participants through breathtaking landscapes, offering invaluable insights into color, composition, and technique. Whether painting en plein air or refining work in the studio, her guidance ensures a transformative artistic journey in one of the most inspiring settings in the world. Draw on the knowledge and experience Lyn has built up reaching the status of an IAPS Eminent Pastellist.

What to Expect From Your Week with Lyn

Your week with Lyn will combine daily painting sessions, demonstrations, and individual instruction, both in the studio and on location, with studio lunches and convivial group dinners. Beyond the easel, you will experience some of western Sicily’s most extraordinary landscapes and historic sites: ancient Greek temples overlooking turquoise waters; the car-free medieval hill town of Erice, with its cobblestone streets, Norman castle, sweeping coastal views, and legendary pastries still prepared from recipes preserved by its medieval convents; and the Stagnone Lagoon, where shallow waters, coral-hued salt pans, and flocks of flamingos create an unforgettable setting for painting. You will also paint in Marsala’s historic city center, where warm stone façades, Baroque churches, elegant piazzas, and the rhythms of everyday Sicilian life offer a wealth of inspiring subjects. Although the days are devoted to art and exploration, there will also be time to slow down—relax beside the pool or enjoy a glass of Marsala’s celebrated wines at an open-air seaside café. It is a week designed to balance focused artistic growth with discovery, beauty, and the unhurried pleasures of life in Sicily.

Visual Travel Journaling as a Special Focus

Create a Visual Journal of Your Sicilian Adventure

A special focus of Lyn Diefenbach’s Sicily workshop will be visual travel journaling—a practice she approaches not merely as sketching, but as a deeply personal form of creative reflection. Using ink, watercolor, and colored pencil, participants will weave images and words into a personal record of their Sicilian journey.

Your journal might gather sketches of dramatic coastlines, historic architecture, and sunlit countryside alongside personal reflections, color notes, fragments of poetry, memories, and moments of imagination. Lyn will encourage you to record not only the visible world, but also the feelings, stories, associations, and atmospheres each place awakens—allowing observation and imagination to meet on the page.

The result will be more than a sketchbook: it will be a poetic record of experience, a synthesis of image and thought, and a treasured keepsake that continues to speak long after the journey has ended. So bring your pastels, your sketchbook, and, most importantly, your joy and curiosity. Sicily is waiting to inspire you.

Explore Sicily with Lyn

This retreat is designed to offer both artistic structure and creative freedom. Lyn’s demonstrations and individual guidance will provide direction and encouragement, while generous independent work periods will allow you to develop your own ideas at your own pace. You may choose to explore landscape, portraiture, still life, visual travel journaling, or the subjects that most deeply capture your imagination. Time will flow between our spacious, professionally equipped, fully air-conditioned studio and painting outdoors, giving you the advantages of both a focused working environment and direct engagement with Sicily’s light and landscape. Just as important is the experience of creating alongside a small community of fellow artists—sharing discoveries, exchanging ideas, and returning home with renewed confidence, inspiration, and a body of work that is distinctly your own.